Described as a kinetic sculpture, Ro-Bow (as the name suggests) is a violin-playing robot that uses electromagnetic actuators to play digital files. Yeah, it won't be the first chair at the London Philharmonic any time soon, but its pretty amazing to watch all the machine's parts work in unison to produce some pretty…»2/22/15 1:13pm 2/22/15 1:13pm

The violin is a cute little instrument but also, as I learned from watching this video of violin maker (or luthier) John Young, a really interesting instrument to make. It's artfully designed and carefully shaved down and is still made in a similar way from when it first appeared centuries ago. »12/24/14 2:22am 12/24/14 2:22am

The season 3 premier is upon us, people. There were a lot of quality contenders for this soundtrack slot. Mashups, covers and original tracks abound. Jason Yang's cover of the Game of Thrones theme by Ramin Djawadi is all-around solid, though, and also pretty epic. The track incorporates acoustic and electric… »3/31/13 9:00pm 3/31/13 9:00pm

Playing a violin requires far more finesse than just dragging a bow across its strings. There are subtle nuances in motion, pressure, and speed required that take years to master. Or, you can wait for Dylan Menzies to perfect his easy-to-play optical O-Bow and just skip all the practice and rehearsals. »3/22/13 9:16am 3/22/13 9:16am

The world's best violins come with strings made from catgut—which isn't typically from cats, but does definitely come from the inside of an animal. If you want a more vegetarian alternative, though, how about a set made from spider silk? »3/05/12 4:00pm 3/05/12 4:00pm

I don't really care why Ranjit Bhatnagar decided to start building a new musical instrument each and every day—I just care about the fact that he built a delightful 8 bit violin recently. »2/23/11 1:00am 2/23/11 1:00am

Genius Japanese violinist Teppei Okada plays the music track and sound effects of Super Mario Bros. Now I'm hoping that the next Nintendo console will include a violinist built-in. After all, they are running out of gimmicks pretty quick. [Nikkovideo] »6/18/10 11:40am 6/18/10 11:40am

Anyone else feel the hysteria over the Facebook privacy concerns is pretty ridiculous? Wave an open-source violin in the face of the next posturing fool you see harping on about it. [xkcd] »5/21/10 6:00am 5/21/10 6:00am

There's no definition for the word "worthless" in the Hammacher Schlemmer dictionary; these Fingertip Piano Gloves are "ingenious," a portable subway piano concerto waiting to happen. Each glove plays an entire octave in the key of C, and the final three notes in the scale are achieved by pressing down on the palm.…
»9/21/08 7:00pm 9/21/08 7:00pm

Steampunk modding, love it or hate it, has caught on and led to everything from LCD monitors to Nerf rifles getting the treatment. And now we have this steampunk-ish modded violin, that's seriously cut-down and gutted, and packs in tubes and wires and faux valves. Plus one extra string. »5/06/08 7:22am 5/06/08 7:22am

There's not much detail on why this Huainan building was built in the shape of a violin and a piano, but our guess is it's to shame every little Chinese kid into taking up the two stereotypical instruments they play: the piano and the violin. Of course, their instruments aren't made of glass and aren't 100 feet tall,… »9/18/07 4:30pm 9/18/07 4:30pm

This is a machine gun violin concept by Wei Lieh Lee of the School of Visual Arts. Looks like someone resented their mandatory music lessons. [via the amazing Geekologie] »7/27/07 6:03pm 7/27/07 6:03pm